Featuring the Hoon podcast hosted by Bernard Hickey & Peter Bale, with Cathrine Dyer on climate news and Robert Patman on geo-politics, plus special guests Helen Clark and Patrick Reynolds
Well Patrick I can’t agree with your analysis of density of houses in the main cities. New Zealand is more than the main cities. All the smaller towns have an interest in the infrastructure of New Zealand. And if we built a fast train system in New Zealand from Bluff to Cape Reanga (sp?) then they would benefit too. Children would benefit - they could have the healthy out door life we had. They would have smaller class sizes. Businesses would develop. People who wanted to work in the nearest main cities could get there in 20 minutes. I could go on and on.
Re the discussion of Gaza and the comments of Helen Clark regarding MFAT and defence employees likely pushing for closer relations with the US. I suspect from reading quite a few responses to information requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that there is there a fairly strong pro-Zionist bias in MFAT which is being kept private by over-generous use of section 6(a) of the Official Information Act in redactions and refusals to answer information requests re Gaza. Section 6(a) provides the following justification for refusing to provide requested official information - "Good reason for withholding official information exists, for the purpose of section 5, if the making available of that information would be likely—(a) to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of the Government of New Zealand".
Well Patrick I can’t agree with your analysis of density of houses in the main cities. New Zealand is more than the main cities. All the smaller towns have an interest in the infrastructure of New Zealand. And if we built a fast train system in New Zealand from Bluff to Cape Reanga (sp?) then they would benefit too. Children would benefit - they could have the healthy out door life we had. They would have smaller class sizes. Businesses would develop. People who wanted to work in the nearest main cities could get there in 20 minutes. I could go on and on.
Re the discussion of Gaza and the comments of Helen Clark regarding MFAT and defence employees likely pushing for closer relations with the US. I suspect from reading quite a few responses to information requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that there is there a fairly strong pro-Zionist bias in MFAT which is being kept private by over-generous use of section 6(a) of the Official Information Act in redactions and refusals to answer information requests re Gaza. Section 6(a) provides the following justification for refusing to provide requested official information - "Good reason for withholding official information exists, for the purpose of section 5, if the making available of that information would be likely—(a) to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of the Government of New Zealand".